Dynamic presentation of actionable content items

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for determining and generating content items that provide patient information and content provided by, for example, a third-party content provider that is relevant to information associated with an open healthcare application. The content items are displayed in a separate display space from the healthcare application&#39;s user interface and dynamically change and update in response to changes in the information being displayed on the healthcare application&#39;s user interface. Additionally, the content items are actionable thereby enabling healthcare providers to address alerts, take actions, view supporting documentation, and the like.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.Nonprovisional application Ser. No. 14/144,803, titled “DynamicPresentation of Actionable Content Items,” filed Dec. 31, 2013, theentire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

A healthcare provider working within a patient healthcare application ona computing device typically desires access to additional content thathelps the provider to better understand the information being presentedby the application. For example, the provider may wish to access adifferential diagnosis list associated with a set of patient symptoms.Traditional solutions to this problem require the provider to select,for example, the set of patient symptoms in the application. Selectionof the symptoms may navigate the provider to another application where,for instance, a differential diagnosis list is presented. The providermust then close out of this application in order to return to thepatient healthcare application. This navigation process disrupts theprovider's train of thought and requires the provider to refocus on theinformation presented by the healthcare application before proceeding.

Another problem associated with typical patient healthcare applicationsis the presentation of alerts or action items. Alerts, such as alertsregarding medication refills, or drug-drug interactions are oftenpresented as pop-ups in the healthcare application and require theprovider to take some type of action in order to dismiss the pop-up. Theuse of pop-ups to alert the provider to potential problems or actionitems also disrupts the provider's train of thought and requires theprovider to refocus his or her attention on the application once thepop-up is addressed and dismissed.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter. The present invention is defined by the claims.

In brief and at a high level, this disclosure describes, among otherthings, methods, systems, and computer-readable media for dynamicallydetermining and presenting actionable content items that arecontextually relevant to and augment information associated with an openhealthcare application. The content items are presented in anon-disruptive manner, such as, for example, in a sidebar that isdisplayed simultaneously with the application user interface. Thecontent items dynamically flex and update in response to changes in theinformation currently being displayed by the healthcare application.Examples of content items may include alerts, patient-enteredinformation, content provided by content providers, action items, andthe like. Presenting dynamic and actionable content items in a sidebarto an existing application enables the provider to view and act on thecontent items at the provider's convenience. This stands in contrast tothe traditional presentation of alerts as pop-ups or the necessity ofhaving to open and close other applications to access neededinformation, both of which disrupt the provider's train of thought andcan hamper patient care.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the attacheddrawings figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing environment suitableto implement embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary system for dynamicallypresenting content items related to information being presented by ahealthcare application suitable to implement embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 3-8 are exemplary graphical user interfaces illustrating thepresentation of actionable content items related to information beingpresented by a healthcare application in accordance with embodiments ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of dynamicallydetermining content items to be displayed in a graphical user interfacethat is presented in association with a healthcare application inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The subject matter of the present invention is described withspecificity herein to meet statutory requirements. However, thedescription itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent.Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimed subject mattermight also be embodied in other ways, to include different steps orcombinations of steps similar to the ones described in this document, inconjunction with other present or future technologies. Moreover,although the terms “step” and/or “block” may be used herein to connotedifferent elements of methods employed, the terms should not beinterpreted as implying any particular order among or between varioussteps herein disclosed unless and except when the order of individualsteps is explicitly described.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods, systems,and computer-readable media for determining and presenting actionablecontent items that are contextually relevant to patient informationassociated with a healthcare application. The content items aregenerated by monitoring information associated with the healthcareapplication, including what information is currently being displayed bythe healthcare application. Content related to the monitored informationis retrieved from content providers. Additionally, information stored inassociation with the patient's electronic medical record (EMR) isaccessed to identify patient information related to the monitoredinformation and/or related to the content retrieved from the contentproviders. The patient information accessed from the EMR and the contentretrieved from the content providers are presented in a non-disruptivemanner as actionable content items.

The content items may include such things as alerts, patient-enteredinformation, action items, content provided by content providers such asdifferential diagnosis lists, decision-support schemas, and variousclinical tools, and the like. As mentioned, the content items areactionable. Interaction with a content item can initiate clinical ordersor order sets, add information to the patient's EMR, address alerts, andthe like. As well, interaction with a content item can affect changes tothe information being presented by the healthcare application, andinteraction with the information being presented by the healthcareapplication can affect changes to the content items. By way of example,a provider can import a content item, or portions of a content item,such as a patient-entered review-of-systems into a summary note in thehealthcare application. In another example, a provider can highlight ortag information in the healthcare application and initiate thepresentation of an actionable content item in the sidebar that isrelated to the tagged information. The actionable content item enablesthe provider to initiate an action related to the tagged information.The interaction between the content items and the information presentedin the healthcare application helps the provider to provide improvedcare to his or her patients. In addition, the content items dynamicallyflex and update in response to new information being displayed by thehealthcare application and/or in response to user actions.

An exemplary computing environment suitable for use in implementingembodiments of the present invention is described below. FIG. 1 is anexemplary computing environment (e.g., medical-informationcomputing-system environment) with which embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented. The computing environment is illustratedand designated generally as reference numeral 100. The computingenvironment 100 is merely an example of one suitable computingenvironment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to thescope of use or functionality of the invention. Neither should thecomputing environment 100 be interpreted as having any dependency orrequirement relating to any single component or combination ofcomponents illustrated therein.

The present invention might be operational with numerous other computingsystem environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computingsystems, environments, and/or configurations that might be suitable foruse with the present invention include personal computers, servercomputers, handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set-top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers,distributed computing environments that include any of theabove-mentioned systems or devices, and the like.

The present invention might be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer. Exemplary program modules comprise routines,programs, objects, components, and data structures that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thepresent invention might be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules might be located in association with localand/or remote computer storage media (e.g., memory storage devices).

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the computing environment 100comprises a computing device in the form of a control server 102.Exemplary components of the control server 102 comprise a processingunit, internal system memory, and a suitable system bus for couplingvarious system components, including data store 104, with the controlserver 102. The system bus might be any of several types of busstructures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus, using any of a variety of bus architectures.Exemplary architectures comprise Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus,Video Electronic Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI) bus, also known as Mezzanine bus.

The control server 102 typically includes therein, or has access to, avariety of non-transitory computer-readable media. Computer-readablemedia can be any available media that might be accessed by controlserver 102, and includes volatile and nonvolatile media, as well as,removable and nonremovable media. By way of example, and not limitation,computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media andcommunication media. Computer storage media includes volatile andnonvolatile media and removable and non-removable media implemented inany method or technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium which can be used to store the desired informationand which can be accessed by control server 102. Communication mediatypically embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as acarrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any informationdelivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that hasone or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as toencode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation,communication media includes wired media such as a wired network ordirect-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,infrared, and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The control server 102 might operate in a computer network 106 usinglogical connections to one or more remote computers 108. Remotecomputers 108 might be located at a variety of locations in a medical orresearch environment, including clinical laboratories (e.g., moleculardiagnostic laboratories), hospitals and other inpatient settings,veterinary environments, ambulatory settings, medical billing andfinancial offices, hospital administration settings, home healthcareenvironments, and clinicians' offices. Clinicians may comprise atreating physician or physicians; specialists such as surgeons,radiologists, cardiologists, and oncologists; emergency medicaltechnicians; physicians' assistants; nurse practitioners; nurses;nurses' aides; pharmacists; dieticians; microbiologists; laboratoryexperts; laboratory technologists; genetic counselors; researchers;veterinarians; students; and the like. The remote computers 108 mightalso be physically located in nontraditional medical care environmentsso that the entire healthcare community might be capable of integrationon the network. The remote computers 108 might be personal computers,servers, routers, network PCs, peer devices, other common network nodes,or the like and might comprise some or all of the elements describedabove in relation to the control server 102. The devices can be personaldigital assistants or other like devices.

Computer networks 106 comprise local area networks (LANs) and/or widearea networks (WANs). Such networking environments are commonplace inoffices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet.When utilized in a WAN networking environment, the control server 102might comprise a modem or other means for establishing communicationsover the WAN, such as the Internet. In a networking environment, programmodules or portions thereof might be stored in association with thecontrol server 102, the data store 104, or any of the remote computers108. For example, various application programs may reside on the memoryassociated with any one or more of the remote computers 108. It will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the networkconnections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing acommunications link between the computers (e.g., control server 102 andremote computers 108) might be utilized.

In operation, an organization might enter commands and information intothe control server 102 or convey the commands and information to thecontrol server 102 via one or more of the remote computers 108 throughinput devices, such as a keyboard, a microphone (e.g., voice inputs), atouchscreen, a pointing device (commonly referred to as a mouse), atrackball, or a touch pad. Other input devices comprise satellitedishes, scanners, or the like. Commands and information might also besent directly from a remote healthcare device to the control server 102.In addition to a monitor, the control server 102 and/or remote computers108 might comprise other peripheral output devices, such as speakers anda printer.

Although many other internal components of the control server 102 andthe remote computers 108 are not shown, such components and theirinterconnection are well known. Accordingly, additional detailsconcerning the internal construction of the control server 102 and theremote computers 108 are not further disclosed herein.

Turning now to FIG. 2, an exemplary computing system environment 200 isdepicted suitable for use in implementing embodiments of the presentinvention. The computing system environment 200 is merely an example ofone suitable computing system environment and is not intended to suggestany limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of embodiments ofthe present invention. Neither should the computing system environment200 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement related toany single module/component or combination of modules/componentsillustrated therein.

The computing system environment 200 includes a content items service210, a data store 212, a content provider 214, and an end-user computingdevice 216 all in communication with each other via a network 218. Thenetwork may include, without limitation, one or more local area networks(LANs) or wide area networks (WANs). Such networks are commonplace and,as such, will not be further described herein.

In some embodiments, one or more of the illustrated components/modulesmay be implemented as stand-alone applications. In other embodiments,one or more of the illustrated components/modules may be integrateddirectly into the operating system of the content items service 210. Thecomponents/modules illustrated in FIG. 2 are exemplary in nature and innumber and should not be construed as limiting. Any number ofcomponents/modules may be employed to achieve the desired functionalitywithin the scope of embodiments hereof. Further, components/modules maybe located on any number of servers. By way of example only, the contentitems service 210 might reside on a server, a cluster of servers, or acomputing device remote from one or more of the remaining components.

The computing system environment 200 is merely exemplary. While thecontent items service 210 is illustrated as a single unit, it will beappreciated that the content items service 210 is scalable. For example,the content items service 210 may in actuality include a plurality ofcomputing devices in communication with one another. Moreover, the datastore 212, or portions thereof, may be included within, for instance,the content items service 210 as a computer storage medium. The singleunit depictions are meant for clarity, not to limit the scope ofembodiments in any form.

It should be understood that this and other arrangements describedherein are set forth only as examples. Other arrangements and elements(e.g., machines, interfaces, functions, orders, and groupings offunctions, etc.) can be used in addition to or instead of those shown,and some elements may be omitted altogether. Further, many of theelements described herein are functional entities that may beimplemented as discrete or distributed components or in conjunction withother components/modules, and in any suitable combination and location.Various functions described herein as being performed by one or moreentities may be carried out by hardware, firmware, and/or software. Forinstance, various functions may be carried out by a processor executinginstructions stored in memory.

The data store 212 is configured to store information for use by, forexample, the content items service 210 and/or the end-user computingdevice 216. The information stored in association with the data store212 is configured to be searchable for one or more items of informationstored in association therewith. The information stored in associationwith the data store 212 may comprise general information used by thecontent items service 210 and/or the end-user computing device 216. Forexample, the data store 212 may store information concerningstandards-of-care or quality initiatives promulgated by a particularhealthcare facility or by standards-setting organizations. Thestandards-of-care or quality initiatives may be used by the contentitems service 210 to determine content items associated with, forexample, particular findings or particular diagnoses. By way ofillustrative example, a healthcare facility may have a standard-of-carerequiring all patients diagnosed with diabetes be given diabetes patienteducation. Thus, a content item comprising diabetes education may begenerated by the content items service 210 upon determining that apatient has been diagnosed with diabetes.

The data store 212 may also store information regarding licenses betweenhealthcare facilities and content providers. The licenses delineate whattype of content will be provided to a particular healthcare facility bythe content providers. The data store 212 may also store informationregarding providers associated with a particular healthcare facility andlearned preferences associated with those providers. By way ofillustrative example, learned preferences may include types of orders oractions routinely initiated by a provider, a history of the provider'sinteractions with content items, and the like. This information may beused to tailor the type and/or number of content items presented to theprovider, the priority order in which the content items are presented,and/or the actions that are associated with the content items.

In one aspect, the data store 212, or a different data store, may storeEMRs of patients associated with a healthcare facility. EMRs maycomprise electronic clinical documents such as images, clinical notes,orders, summaries, reports, analyses, or other types of electronicmedical documentation relevant to a particular patient's conditionand/or treatment. Electronic clinical documents contain various types ofinformation relevant to the condition and/or treatment of a particularpatient and can include information relating to, for example, patientidentification information, images, alert history, culture results,patient-entered information, physical examinations, vital signs, pastmedical histories, surgical histories, family histories, histories ofpresent illnesses, current and past medications, allergies, symptoms,past orders, completed orders, pending orders, tasks, lab results, othertest results, patient encounters and/or visits, immunizations, physiciancomments, nurse comments, other caretaker comments, and a host of otherrelevant clinical information.

The content and volume of such information in the data store 212 are notintended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention inany way. Further, though illustrated as a single, independent component,the data store 212 may, in fact, be a plurality of storage devices, forinstance, a database cluster, portions of which may reside on thecontent items service 210, the end-user computing device 216, and/or anycombination thereof.

The content provider 214 is, in one aspect, an independent provider ofhealthcare-related content (e.g., a third-party content provider).Exemplary third-party content providers include, for example, ELSEVIER®CLINICALKEY™, CERNER®, ISABEL®, MEDCALC®, and UPTODATE®. Third-partycontent providers provide clinical decision support tools, educationalinformation, differential diagnosis lists, clinical calculators, and thelike. The content provider 214 may also include healthcare facilities.The healthcare facilities may publish their own content, such asstandards-of-care or quality initiatives, for use by, for example, thecontent items service 210. Although only one content provider isillustrated in FIG. 2, it is contemplated that the present invention mayencompass multiple content providers.

As shown, the end-user computing device 216 includes a display screen217. The display screen 217 is configured to display information to theuser of the end-user computing device 216, for instance, informationrelevant to communications initiated by and/or received by the end-usercomputing device 216, information associated with healthcareapplications, content items generated by the content items service 210,and/or the like. Embodiments are not intended to be limited to visualdisplay but rather may also include audio presentation, combinedaudio/visual presentation, and the like. The end-user computing device216 may be any type of display device suitable for presenting agraphical user interface. Such computing devices may include, withoutlimitation, a computer, such as, for example, any of the remotecomputers 108 described above with reference to FIG. 1. Other types ofdisplay devices may include tablet PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, smartphones, as well as conventional display devices such as televisions.Interaction with the graphical user interface may be via a touch pad, amicrophone, a pointing device, and/or gestures.

As shown in FIG. 2, the content items service 210 comprises a monitoringcomponent 220, an identifying component 222, a determining component224, and a rendering component 226. In some embodiments, one or more ofthe components 220, 222, 224, and 226 may be implemented as stand-aloneapplications. In other embodiments, one or more of the components 220,222, 224, and 226 may be integrated directly into the operating systemof a computing device such as the remote computer 108 of FIG. 1. It willbe understood that the components 220, 222, 224, and 226 illustrated inFIG. 2 are exemplary in nature and in number and should not be construedas limiting. Any number of components may be employed to achieve thedesired functionality within the scope of embodiments hereof.

The monitoring component 220 is configured to monitor patientinformation associated with a healthcare application being executed on,for example, the end-user computing device 216. The types of healthcareapplications are numerous but representative examples may includedocumentation applications, workflow applications, orderingapplications, summary pages, and the like. The content items service 210is configured for use in association with any type of healthcareapplication. In one aspect, the patient information that is associatedwith the healthcare application may be customized based on the patient,the identity of the provider accessing the application and the roleassociated with that provider (e.g., physician versus nurse), thehealthcare venue or healthcare facility associated with the patient'scare (e.g., inpatient versus ambulatory), conditions associated with thepatient (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, pregnancy, and the like), andtype of visit (e.g., new patient, follow-up, well-patient, admission,transfer, discharge, and the like). The monitoring component 220 isconfigured to take into account not only the patient, the provider, theprovider role, the venue, patient conditions, and type of visit whenmonitoring information associated with the healthcare application, butalso what information is currently being displayed by the healthcareapplication user interface and in what context the information is beingpresented. For example, the monitoring component 220 is configured toidentify that a “Labs” section is currently being displayed by theapplication and what type of labs are being shown in this section.

The monitoring component 220 is further configured to monitor anyupdates to the information associated with the application. Updates mayinclude updated information concerning the provider, the provider role,the venue, patient conditions, and type of visit. The updatedinformation may also include changes to information currently beingdisplayed by the healthcare application. For example, instead of thehealthcare application currently displaying the labs section, dischargeinformation may currently be displayed by the application.

The monitoring component 220 is also configured to monitor informationassociated with the healthcare facility caring for the patient. Forinstance, the monitoring component 220 is configured to monitorantibiotic resistance patterns associated with the facility, medicationscarried by the facility's formulary, best practices implemented by thefacility, and the like.

The monitoring component 220 is additionally configured to monitorprovider interactions with the healthcare application and with contentitems in order to determine preferences associated with the provider.Exemplary provider interactions associated with the healthcareapplication may include frequently placed orders or order sets,terminology or phrases frequently used in clinical notes, and frequentlytaken actions. Exemplary provider interactions associated with contentitems may include dismissing certain content items, reprioritizingcontent items in a certain order, types of actions selected by theprovider with respect to certain content items, and the like. Providerpreferences may be derived from the provider interactions and stored inassociation with the data store 212.

The identifying component 222 is configured to identify and retrievecontent from the content provider 214 that is related or contextuallyrelevant to the information associated with the healthcare application.The content may be retrieved from the data store 212, or directly fromthe content provider 214. The identifying component 222 may employ, forinstance, a universal application programming interface (API) toretrieve the content from the content provider 214. The API may bemodified and/or extended by various wrappers and translators (customizedor standard) that are specific to the particular content provider. Thecontent may include differential diagnosis lists, decision-supportalgorithms, healthcare facility-specific standards-of-care or qualityinitiatives, clinical tools such as clinical calculators, and the like.

The identifying component 222 is also configured to access the patient'sEMR and identify patient information, including patient-enteredinformation that is relevant to the information associated with thehealthcare application and/or relevant to information retrieved from thecontent provider 214. Examples of patient-entered information mayinclude patient-entered questions, patient-entered responses toquestions, patient-entered review-of-systems, patient-entered diet orexercise logs, patient-entered history, and the like.

The identifying component 222 is further configured to access thepatient's EMR to identify any alerts and/or action items related to theinformation associated with the healthcare application and/or thecontent retrieved from the content provider 214. Exemplary alerts maycomprise medication refill alerts, drug interaction alerts, allergyalerts, order alerts, and the like. The identifying component 222 isalso configured to identify a level associated with the alert. Forinstance, some alerts may be informational and of low priority, whileother alerts may be warning alerts or patient safety alerts having ahigher priority.

The determining component 224 is configured to utilize at least thepatient information identified by the identifying component 222 from thepatient's EMR as well as the content identified and retrieved by theidentifying component 222 from the content provider 214 to determineactionable content items that are contextually relevant to theinformation associated with the healthcare application. The actionablecontent items are subsequently rendered for display in a display spaceassociated with the healthcare application user interface by therendering component 226.

Different content items may be determined by the determining component224 based on the patient information from the patient's EMR as well asthe content from the content provider 214. For example, the determiningcomponent 224 may utilize patient-entered information to determine andgenerate a patient-entered review-of-systems content item, apatient-entered exercise or diet log content item, a patient-enteredquestions content item, a patient-entered response to question contentitem, and the like. Similarly, the determining component 224 may utilizepatient information in the EMR to determine and generate alert contentitems and action content items. Content from content providers may beused by the determining component to determine and generate adifferential diagnosis content item, a quality initiative content item,a decision-support content item, a clinical calculator content item, andthe like. Each of the content items determined by the determiningcomponent 224 is related to or relevant to the information associatedwith the healthcare application including the information currentlybeing displayed by the healthcare application.

The determining component 224 is further configured to determine actionsassociated with the content items where the type of action is dependentupon the type of content item and/or learned provider preferences. Forexample, actions associated with a medication refill content item mayinclude “Refill” and “Dismiss.” Actions associated with apatient-entered review-of-systems content item may include “Import” and“Dismiss.” Selection of the “Import” option imports the patient-enteredinformation, or a portion of the patient-entered information, into, forexample, a document presented by the healthcare application such as asummary note. This will be explained in greater depth below. Actionsassociated with order content items may include “Add” or “Dismiss.”Additional actions associated with content items may include the abilityto select information within the content item and be directed tosupporting documentation associated with the selected information.

The determining component 224 is configured to prioritize content itemsbased on, for example, relevance to information currently beingdisplayed by the healthcare application, urgency status, and/orpreferences associated with the provider utilizing the healthcareapplication. Content items that may no longer be relevant to informationcurrently presented by the healthcare application may be presented lowerin the content item list, may be partially collapsed, or may not bepresented in the display space. With respect to provider preferences, ifa provider consistently dismisses certain content items, these contentitems may be presented lower in the content item list as compared toother content items, be partially collapsed, or may not be presented inthe display space.

The determining component 224 is additionally configured to dynamicallyupdate the content items in response to updated information associatedwith the healthcare application. As used throughout this disclosure, theterm “dynamically” means occurring in near real time. As mentionedabove, the updated information associated with the healthcareapplication may include changes to the provider, the provider role, thevenue or healthcare facility, patient conditions, or type of visit. Aswell, the updated information may include changes to the informationcurrently being displayed by the healthcare application. In response tothe updated information, the determining component 224 may generate newcontent items, reprioritize existing content items, or modify contentassociated with existing content items. Content items that are lessrelevant with respect to the updated information may be placed lower inthe content item list, partially collapsed, or not be presented in thedisplay space.

In one aspect, the rendering component 226 may render content items in aseparate sidebar element to the left or to the right of the healthcareapplication user interface. In other embodiments, the content items maybe presented in a separate display space positioned at the top or thebottom of the healthcare application user interface. Additionally, thecontent items may be presented as an overlay on existing content beingpresented by the application, or “in-line” to an item of informationpresented by the healthcare application. Any and all such variations,and any combination thereof, are contemplated as being within the scopeof the invention.

Content items that are time sensitive, such as medication refills, maybe highlighted by the rendering component 226 in some manner to helpdraw the user's attention to the content items. Additionally, alertcontent items may be highlighted in different manners according to thelevel of the alert (e.g., informational versus warning versus patientsafety). Highlighting may be accomplished by coloring the content itemdifferently than other content items, using different font, placing thecontent item higher in the priority queue, making the content itemappear to glow, associating an audible sound such as a beep or ping withthe content item, and the like.

Turning now to FIGS. 3-8, these figures depict exemplary graphical userinterfaces (GUIs) displaying exemplary content items related toinformation associated with a healthcare application. With respect toFIG. 3, FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary GUI 300 that includes an openhealthcare application and its associated user interface 314 accessed bya provider 312 (Jan Carter, M.D.) for a patient 310 (Charles Adams).Besides identifying the provider 312, the role of the provider, and thepatient 310, the open healthcare application's user interface 314 alsoincludes information identifying the healthcare venue and the type ofvisit 316 (follow-up (ambulatory)), and conditions 318 associated withthe patient 310 (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes). As shownin FIG. 3, the healthcare application's user interface 314 is currentlydisplaying information, such as lab results, for a condition 317, thecondition 317 being diabetes.

The GUI 300 further includes a display space 320. In one aspect, thedisplay space 320 is presented simultaneously with the healthcareapplication's user interface 314 as a separate sidebar element. AlthoughFIG. 3 depicts the display space 320 as a separate sidebar to the rightof the healthcare application's user interface 314, it is alsocontemplated that the display space 320 may be presented as a leftsidebar or as a separate display space positioned at the top or thebottom of the healthcare application's user interface 314. In anotheraspect, the display space 320 may be presented as an overlay to thehealthcare application. With respect to this aspect, the entire displayspace 320 may be presented as an overlay on content associated with thehealthcare application. Alternatively, individual content items may bepresented as an overlay on content associated with the healthcareapplication. Further, when presented as an overlay, the display space320 and/or the individual content items may be presented for apredetermined period of time before fading or disappearing. In oneaspect, the display space 320 and/or content items may be minimized viaa user action or automatically upon determining that the content item(s)is no longer relevant to information currently being presented by thehealthcare application. In yet another aspect, the content items may bepresented “in-line” within the healthcare application's user interface314. For example, a medication refill content item may be presentedin-line with the listed medication in the healthcare application's userinterface 314. Any and all such variations, and any combination thereof,are contemplated as being within the scope of the invention.

The display space 320 includes a number of content items 322, 324, and326 that are related to the information associated with the openhealthcare application and the open healthcare application's userinterface 314. The content item 322 is a differential diagnosis listprovided by a third-party content provider. The differential diagnosiscontent item 322 is contextually relevant to the patient 310, to the labresults currently being shown by the healthcare application's userinterface 314, to the provider and provider role (physician) 312, aswell as to the diabetes condition 317. The differential diagnosiscontent item 322 is displayed automatically and without humanintervention, which helps the provider 312 to maintain consistency inhis or her workflow without having to navigate to a separate applicationto access the differential diagnosis information or be disrupted by apop-up with the differential diagnosis information.

The content item 324 comprises a medication refill content item for thediabetes medication Metformin. The medication refill content item 324 isrelevant to the patient 310, the role associated with the provider 312,and the diabetes condition 317. For example, the medication refillcontent item 324 would not typically be displayed to a nurse since thenurse could not act on the refill order. The medication refill contentitem 324 includes a “Refill” action and a “Dismiss” action. If theprovider 312 selects the “Refill” action, the order is automaticallyinitiated and stored in the patient's EMR. If the provider selects the“Dismiss” action, the content item 324 is either dismissed from thedisplay space 320 or moved lower in the priority queue.

The content item 326 comprises a content item for diabetes patienteducation. The diabetes patient education content item 326 is related tothe patient 310, the diabetes condition 317, and the provider role.Diabetes patient education may be part of a healthcare facility'sstandard-of-care or quality initiative, and thus, a diabetes educationcontent item may be automatically generated by, for example, the contentitems service 210 of FIG. 2 upon identifying from the healthcareapplication that the patient 310 suffers from diabetes. The diabetespatient education content item 326 includes the actions “Add” and“Dismiss.” By selecting the “Add” action, diabetes patient informationwill be added to a list of education items to be provided to the patient310. Additionally, by selecting the “Add” action, the provider 312 mayalso be able to initiate a specific order or order set related todiabetes. By selecting the “Dismiss” action, the provider 312 candismiss the content item 326 as explained above with respect to themedication refill content item 324.

FIG. 4 depicts the GUI 300 at a point in time when the healthcareapplication's user interface 314 is displaying a new set of patientinformation to the provider 312. Elements that are the same between thefigures are indicated by like numerals. The display space 320 ispresenting a new content item 410. An indication of the differentialdiagnosis content item 322 is presented although the actual content itemhas been partially collapsed. The collapse may occur in response to auser action or it may occur automatically upon determining that thedifferential diagnosis content item 322 is no longer relevant to theinformation currently being presented by the healthcare applicationwithin its user interface 314. The remaining content items of FIG. 3have either been moved down in the content item list where they can beaccessed by scrolling down the display space 320 or they have beenremoved from the display space 320.

The content item 410 comprises a patient-entered response to a question.In this case, the question requested that the patient 310 select theproblem to be addressed by the current visit. The patient 310 selectedthe problem of high blood pressure. As seen, the content item 410 isrelated to the patient 310, the provider and provider role 312, thevenue and type of visit 316, and the information currently beingdisplayed on the healthcare application's user interface 314 (e.g.,medications for hypertension). Presentation of the content item 410helps to ensure effective communication between the provider 312 and thepatient 310 regarding the patient's care. For example, if the currentvisit was actually for the cholesterol problem and not for high bloodpressure, presentation of the content item 410 in the display space 320provides an opportunity for the provider 312 to educate the patient 310about the purpose of the current visit.

FIG. 5 depicts the healthcare application's user interface 314displaying a discharge summary for the patient 310. The display space320 shown in FIG. 5 includes a “Quality” tab 319 and a “Message” tab 321that enable the provider 312 to filter the content items presented inthe display space 320. Selection of the “Quality” tab 319 may restrictthe content items to those related to quality of care, while selectionof the “Message” tab 321 may restrict the content items topatient-entered questions, nurse-entered questions, and the like.However, even though a tab may be selected, the filter associated withthe tab may be overridden if it is determined that a particular contentitem is relevant to information being presented by the healthcareapplication's user interface 314. Thus, a particular content item may bepresented even though a filter has been set for that content item.Alternative wording for the tabs 319 and 321 is contemplated to bewithin the scope of the invention. The display space 320 may include ornot include the tabs. For instance, tabs may be automatically displayedwhen there is greater than a predetermined number of content items. Aswell, additional tabs are contemplated as being within the scope of theinvention. For example, additional tabs may include an “Alerts” tab, a“Patient-Entered Information” tab, and the like.

The information presented by the healthcare application's user interface314 and the content items presented in the display space 320 are closelyinterrelated, and interaction with one may cause changes to the other.For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the provider is able to tag informationin the healthcare application's user interface 314. Numeral 510indicates information that has been tagged or highlighted by the user.The tagged information 510 is then presented as a content item 514 inthe display space 320. The content item 514 enables the provider 312 toinitiate actions with respect to the tagged information 510. In thisexample, the provider 312 has tagged information related to thepatient's smoking history. The content item 514 comprises a set oforders related to smoking cessation. The orders may be based on pastsmoking cessation order sets submitted by the provider 312 and stored asprovider preferences in a data store, such as the data store 212 of FIG.2. The orders may also be based on standards-of-care or qualityinitiatives associated with the healthcare facility caring for thepatient 310. The actions associated with the content item 514 include an“Add All” action and a “Dismiss” action. The “Add All” action allows theprovider 312 to initiate the complete order set with one click.Additional content items may also be generated based on the taggedinformation 510. For instance, content items may be generated thatenable the provider 312 to incorporate the tagged information 510 into aproblem list, or to add smoking cessation education to the patient'seducation list.

Content items may also be presented upon determining that, for example,a document associated with the healthcare application or the healthcareapplication's user interface 314 includes new information that has notyet been stored in discrete, structure fields in the patient's EMR. Forexample, the discharge summary includes item 512 where the provider 312documented that the patient 310 has a sedentary lifestyle. Upondetermining that this information is not part of the patient's EMR, acontent item 516 is generated and displayed in the display space 320.The content item 516 includes the action “Add” that enables the provider312 to add “Lack of Physical Exercise” to the patient's problem liststored in association with the patient's EMR. Alternatively, theprovider 312 can choose to dismiss the content item 516.

Turning to FIG. 6, the healthcare application is continuing to presentthe discharge summary on the healthcare application's user interface314. However, a new set of content items is being presented in thedisplay space 320. Content item 610 comprises a patient-entered contentitem by which the provider 312 can access the patient's diet andexercise log 611. Ready access to this type of information enables theprovider 312 to prepare a complete discharge summary. Content item 614comprises a patient-entered review-of-systems. In this case, onlypositive findings are shown. The provider 312 can interact with thecontent item 614 and select, for example, the patient's indication thathe is having “Difficulty Swallowing” 615. Actions associated with thecontent item 614 include “Import” and “Dismiss.” Upon the provider'sselection of the “Import” action, the finding 615 is imported into, forexample, the healthcare application. This is shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7depicts the healthcare application's user interface 314 displaying areview-of-systems screen. The finding 615 “Difficulty Swallowing” hasbeen imported into the review-of-systems and relabeled by its correctmedical term “Dysphagia” 710. The translation of the term “DifficultySwallowing” to the term “Dysphagia” may be carried out by a third-partynomenclature service.

FIG. 8 depicts the open healthcare application displaying on its userinterface 314, among other things, a charges workspace where theprovider 312 can indicate the level of service associated with thepatient visit as indicated by numeral 810. The corresponding CPT code isshown at area 812. The display space 320 presents content item 814related to the charge summary. The content item 814 informs the provider312 that there is not enough documentation to support the indicatedlevel of service 810. The content item 814 may be generated uponaccessing the patient's EMR and determining that needed documentation islacking. Actions associated with the content item 814 include “Change”and “Dismiss.” Selection of the “Change” action enables the provider 312to change the level of service associated with the visit.

The display space 320 in FIG. 8 also is presenting content item 816. Thecontent item 816 can be considered a “clean-up” content item in that itprompts the provider 312 to complete one or more items prior to closingout of the healthcare application. The content item 816 may be generatedupon determining that, for example, a note has not yet been documentedfor the current patient visit. The content item 816 includes a “CreateNote” action. Selection of this action directs the provider 312 to theappropriate section of the healthcare application's user interface 314so that the provider 312 can prepare the note. Other clean-up contentitems may include alert reminder content items, charge documentationcontent items, electronic signature reminder content items, and thelike.

Turning now to FIG. 9, FIG. 9 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplarymethod 900 of dynamically determining content items to be displayed in adisplay space that is presented in conjunction with a healthcareapplication. At a step 910, information associated with the healthcareapplication is monitored by a monitoring component, such as themonitoring component 220 of FIG. 2. Examples of monitored informationinclude patient name, user actions, patient conditions, provider name,provider role, venue or healthcare facility caring for the patient, typeof visit, and what information is currently being displayed to theprovider by the healthcare application. Monitoring may also includedetecting any changes or updates to the information associated with thehealthcare application, such as, for example, a change in theinformation currently being displayed to the provider by the healthcareapplication, changes to patient conditions, provider role, type ofvisit, and the like.

At a step 912, an identifying component, such as the identifyingcomponent 222 of FIG. 2, identifies and retrieves content from contentproviders that is relevant to the monitored information. Contentproviders may include third-party content providers that are independentof the healthcare facility providing care to the patient. Contentproviders may also include the healthcare facility itself. Examples ofcontent retrieved from the content providers include decision-supportalgorithms, condition-based practice models, quality initiatives,differential diagnosis lists, clinical tools such as clinicalcalculators, standards-of-care, and the like.

At a step 914, the patient's EMR is accessed by the identifyingcomponent to identify patient information, including patient-enteredinformation, that is relevant to the monitored information associatedwith the healthcare application and/or relevant to the content retrievedfrom the content providers. Examples of patient information accessedfrom the EMR may include outstanding alerts, patient-entered questions,current diagnoses, predisposing conditions, responses to questions,exercise and/or diet logs, review-of-systems, and the like.

At a step 916, a determining component, such as the determiningcomponent 224 of FIG. 2, utilizes the patient information identifiedfrom the patient's EMR and the content retrieved from the contentproviders to determine and generate content items and actions associatedwith the content items. Additional information may also be utilized whengenerating content items. For example, the determining component mayaccess a data store, such as the data store 212 of FIG. 2, to determinepreferences associated with the provider. Provider preferences, in turn,may be used to customize the content of the content items to theparticular provider, prioritize the content items in a particular order,highlight the content items in a particular way, customize the actionsassociated with the content items, and the like. At a step 918, thedetermined content items are then rendered for display by, for example,a rendering component, such as the rendering component 226 of FIG. 2.

The generated content items are contextually relevant to the informationassociated with the healthcare application and are presented in anon-obtrusive manner, such as in a sidebar or as an overlay to thehealthcare application user interface. The content items may beactionable. For example, the provider is able to interact with thecontent items to address alerts, initiate orders, import informationfrom the content items into the healthcare application, view supportingdocumentation, add information to the patient's EMR, navigate todifferent sections of the healthcare application, modify information inthe healthcare application, and the like.

The content items dynamically update in response to, for example,changes in the information associated with the healthcare application,such as changes to the information currently being displayed by thehealthcare application as well as to changes in content provided by thecontent providers or to changes in the patient's medical information asstored in the patient's EMR. Content items may be updated by modifyingcontent associated with existing content items, adding new contentitems, reprioritizing content items, highlighting content items,removing content items that are no longer relevant to the healthcareapplication, and the like.

As seen, the present invention is directed to the presentation ofdynamic, actionable content items that augment information associatedwith a healthcare application. The content items are presented in anon-distracting manner, such as in a sidebar to the healthcareapplication user interface. The provider using the healthcareapplication can address the content items at his or her conveniencewithout the necessity of having to stop the current workflow andnavigate to different applications and/or address disruptive pop-ups.

The present invention has been described in relation to particularembodiments, which are intended in all respects to be illustrativerather than restrictive. Further, the present invention is not limitedto these embodiments, and variations and modifications may be madewithout departing from the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. One or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that,when executed by a computing device, perform a method for presenting onthe computing device a graphical user interface (GUI) that dynamicallydisplays one or more content items based on a user interface of an openhealthcare application, the method comprising: automatically determininga first set of information associated with an open healthcareapplication, wherein the first set of information comprises informationcurrently displayed on a user interface of the open healthcareapplication; upon determining the first set of information currentlydisplayed on the user interface of the open healthcare application,automatically identifying one or more content items received from one ormore third-party content providers as being contextually relevant to thefirst set of information currently displayed on the user interface ofthe open healthcare application; and automatically rendering a graphicuser interface component with the one or more content items withoutopening a separate application.
 2. The computer-readable media of claim1, wherein the graphic user interface component is presented as aseparate sidebar element to the user interface of the open healthcareapplication.
 3. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the oneor more content items are actionable.
 4. The computer-readable media ofclaim 1, wherein the graphic user interface component further comprisespatient-entered information.
 5. The computer-readable media of claim 1,wherein the method further comprises receiving patient information froman electronic medical record of a patient, the patient information beingrelated to the first set of information.
 6. The computer-readable mediaof claim 5, wherein automatically identifying the one or more contentitems as being contextually relevant to the information currentlydisplayed on the user interface of the open healthcare application isfurther based on the patient information.
 7. The computer-readable mediaof claim 1, wherein the content from the one or more third-party contentproviders is at least a clinical decision support tool, educationalinformation, a differential diagnosis list, or a clinical calculator. 8.The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the one or more contentitems are automatically updated upon new information being displayed onthe user interface of the open healthcare application.
 9. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the one or more contentitems are presented in a priority order.
 10. A computerized methodcarried out by at least one server having at least one processor fordynamically determining content items to be displayed in a graphicaluser interface (GUI) that is presented in association with a userinterface of an open healthcare application, the method comprising:monitoring a first set of information associated with an open healthcareapplication, the first set of information comprising informationcurrently being displayed on a user interface of the open healthcareapplication; upon determining the first set of information currentlydisplayed on the user interface of the open healthcare application,automatically identifying, using the at least one processor, contentfrom one or more third-party content providers, the content beingidentified as contextually relevant to the first set of informationcurrently displayed on the user interface of the open healthcareapplication; and automatically rendering a graphic user interfacecomponent with content from the one or more third-party contentproviders without opening a separate application.
 11. The computerizedmethod of claim 10, further comprising accessing an electronic medicalrecord of a patient and identifying, using the at least one processor,patient information related at least to the first set of informationassociated with the open healthcare application; wherein the contentrendered with the graphic user interface component comprises a first setof content items that are determined to be contextually relevant to thefirst set of information and the patient information.
 12. Thecomputerized method of claim 11, further comprising: automaticallydetermining that the first set of information associated with the openhealthcare application has been updated to a second set of information;and incident to determining that the first set of information has beenupdated to the second set of information: identifying and retrieving newcontent from the one or more third-party content providers, the newcontent being related to the second set of information; accessing theelectronic medical record of the patient to identify new patientinformation that is related to the second set of information;determining a second set of content items that is contextually relevantto at least the second set of information using the new content from theone or more third-party content providers and the new patientinformation; and presenting the second set of content items on thegraphic user interface component.
 13. The computerized method of claim12, wherein the first set of information being updated to the second setof information results from a user's interaction with at least one ofthe content items in the first set of content items.
 14. Thecomputerized method of claim 12, wherein the first set of content itemsis no longer presented on the graphic user interface component when thesecond set of content items is presented.
 15. The computerized method ofclaim 12, wherein the first set of content items continues to bepresented on the graphic user interface component simultaneously withthe second set of content items.
 16. A system for dynamically providingcontent items for presentation on a graphical user interface (GUI) inassociation with an open healthcare application, the system comprising:a data store; one or more non-transitory computer readable media havingprocessor-executable instructions; and a processor executing theprocessor-executable instructions, the processor being configured to:monitor a first set of information associated with an open healthcareapplication, the first set of information comprising information beingdisplayed on a user interface of the open healthcare application;retrieve content from one or more third-party content providers, thecontent being related to the first set of information associated withthe open healthcare application; using at least the content from the oneor more third-party content providers, identify a first set of contentitems as being contextually relevant to at least the information beingdisplayed on the user interface; and automatically render a graphic userinterface component with the first set of content items for displaywithout opening a separate application.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the firstset of information has been updated to a second set of information. 18.The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured todynamically update the first set of content items to a second set ofcontent items upon the first set of information being updated to thesecond set of information.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein theprocessor is further configured to monitor a user's interactions withthe user interface of the open healthcare application and with the firstset of content items to determine preferences associated with the user.20. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configuredto access an electronic medical record of a patient and identify patientinformation related to at least the first set of information and whereinthe patient information is used with the content from the third-partycontent providers to identify the first set of content items as beingcontextually relevant.